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Legally Married And Pregnant, Husband Not Bio Father

I am currently going through a divorce. My husband and I have been separated and living apart (but not legally) since May 2007. I am expecting a baby boy any day now. However my husband is not the biological father. I concieved while we were separated. In the state of Ohio, since I am still legally married, my husband is "assumed" to be the father and his name has to be put on the birth certificate in order for me to recieve my child's birth certficate. Now the biological father is not denying paternity. He knows that he is the biological father. However, I still have to establish paternity through the courts for the biological father for other reasons. Is there a way I can not have my husband's name put on the birth certificate? Also, since I am still legally married does my baby have to have my husband's last name or can I give him another last name?

Re: Legally Married And Pregnant, Husband Not Bio Father

they said that since i am still legally married that the husband's name must go on the birth certificate. They also said that if I refused to put my husband's name on the birth certificate than the birth certificate would be considered incomplete and I would not recieve it. I was told by a friend that if I get a notarized letter or legal document signed from my husband stating that he acknowlegdes that he is not the biological father and that he does not want his name on the birth certificate than I wouldn't have to put him on it. Is that true?

Re: Legally Married And Pregnant, Husband Not Bio Father

Quoting in_a_situation

they said that since i am still legally married that the husband's name must go on the birth certificate. They also said that if I refused to put my husband's name on the birth certificate than the birth certificate would be considered incomplete and I would not recieve it. I was told by a friend that if I get a notarized letter or legal document signed from my husband stating that he acknowlegdes that he is not the biological father and that he does not want his name on the birth certificate than I wouldn't have to put him on it. Is that true?

When you divorce your husband will have to disestablish paternity and the father establish paternity.

Re: Legally Married And Pregnant, Husband Not Bio Father

As GV70 correctly explained: If the mother is legally married when the child is born, the law requires that the husband's name be listed as father on the child's birth certificate (irrespective of biological reality to the contrary).

This is the result of the "marital presumption of paternity." However, as with all "presumptions" under law, it is a REBUTTABLE presumption.

Nowadays, in most states, procedures exist allowing for a legal proceeding to be filed by which the "presumed paternity" attributable to the mother's husband may be challenged and rebutted. (The laws of the states vary on this topic, including time limitations for making the challenge as well as other restrictions, e.g., no "third-party challenge" if mother and her husband remain married and living together).

Since the case under discussion is an Ohio case, it is best to confer with an Ohio family law lawyer for proper case evaluation and analysis pursuant to Ohio law.

But from afar, as I sit here in Oregon, I suspect that after the child is born (with mother's husband becoming the presumptive father of the child), the pending divorce proceeding can be amended so as to include a request by mother that the divorce court "disestablish" the husband's presumptive paternity and include a declaration in the divorce judgment to that effect. The mother can then initiate a paternity establishment case against the biological father. (Or, if permitted by Ohio law, perhaps she and the biological father can simply join together and file a voluntary acknowledgment of paternity form.)

Finally, the mother of the child can assign to the child whatever name she wants (unless Ohio law says otherwise, which I doubt is the case). Generally, there is no legal requrement that a child born to a married woman be given the husband's surname (even though the husband is listed as father on the birth certificate). But, again, to be sure, check with an Ohio lawyer (or perhaps others on this board can research Ohio law on this point and let us know).

Re: Legally Married And Pregnant, Husband Not Bio Father

I had the same issue in Virginia. Exactly the same situation. I was not really stressing about it since I had a restraining order on my husband over 1 year before my daughter was ever conceived, just the divorce proceedings took over 2 years. When she was born, we were still married, but had not seen each other for over a year.

I was in the maternity hospital with my boyfriend, the baby's father, when she was born. When the birth certificate lady came and gave us the forms, she just asked us if we were married to each other. When we said we were not, she gave us Paternity Acknowledgment form, which we both signed. We picked last name for her. 2 months later our daughter got her birth certificate in the mail.

When my husband (now ex-husband) found out I had a baby, he got very mad because I never told him (none of his business, he used to abuse me and I just had not kept in touch with him since we separated and I got the court restraining order on him). He called the Vital Records office and requested a copy of my daughters B.C. After that he tried to call his lawyer and wanted to sue me for adultery. After the lawyer told him that in state of Virginia he cant really do that, considering our separation and his violent history towards me, he decided to blackmail me with it. He called me up and told me he wants me to pay $200 for that B.C. to get it back, or he was going to sell it to black market. Because I had no record of him saying that, I couldnt do much about it. I told him to shove it up his rear end and changed my phone number. Since then, I have just been hoping that my daughter's B.C. has not ended up in black market.

Thats my story, but the moral of the story is, if your husband does not want to be on the B.C. and the real biological father does, just write down the real father. If none of these 2 men will later complain about it, nothing will happen. All that Vital Records office cares about, is that there is A father on the B.C. That way there will be some sort of child care from 2 parents or a child support. State doesn't want to pay for your kid Other than that, they dont give a c*ap.....

Now 5 years later I am happily married to my daughter's father. We have now 2 beautiful children and never had any issues from putting his name on our daughter's B.C. while i was still married to my ex-husband. I think it's much worse to put the husband's name on it if you KNOW he is not the father. Might be legally OK, but morally it's definitelly wrong.

Paternity Forms
Forms and documents to establish paternity in all 50 states.

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